Blast from the past!

This term Year 2 are learning all about the Great Fire of London, and to help us learn more about this great disaster, we have had a very special visitor from someone who witnessed the event with their own eyes! On 24th September Sir William Petty came to our school to tell the children all about what he say when the fire began in 1666. He told us about how the fire began and asked us to use our drama skills to act out how the fire spread through the streets. Because Sir William was a friend of King Charles, he could tell us lots of interesting facts… did you know that people would copy King Charles large wig to try to look important, and that’s why they were called ‘Big Wigs’!

After showing us how the fire spread throughout London, Sir William showed us how the people of London helped to put out the fire by making a ‘bucket chain’, passing buckets of water from one person to another to throw on the fire. Before he left Sir William asked Year 2 to complete a special job for King Charles himself! They were asked to redesign London to make it much safer so that a similar disaster would not happen in the future. The children redesigned London with stone and brick houses, wider streets and even named a street after themselves!